A company website is an excellent way to introduce your brand and build credibility. For small businesses, it can be the primary online presence and source of information. However, that’s not all it can do. Most small business websites are underutilized. They can serve more than one purpose and help generate new revenue streams.
Small business owners face the perpetual challenge of having to maximize their assets and be constantly profitable. When looking for ways to generate extra income for a small business, e-commerce is usually top of mind. You can convert basic information sites to full e-commerce sites or modify them to integrate e-commerce features.
However, not all businesses work well with an e-commerce model. For some, setting up the full end-to-end infrastructure of an e-commerce business might be too much of an investment or outside their core expertise. Entrepreneurs need to look beyond e-commerce to make money from their websites.
How can you make more money from a company website?
A small business website is a hub of opportunity. Besides e-commerce, there are many ways to monetize a business site. As far as monetization options go, e-commerce is only the tip of the iceberg.
There are numerous other ways small business owners can unlock the full potential of their online presence, depending on their business model, the team’s expertise, and available resources. The following are examples of actionable strategies for revenue expansion:
Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is one way to help you generate additional revenue for a small business website. With affiliate marketing, you don’t need to stock products or sell them directly. Instead, you promote products relevant to your company’s niche. When your visitors purchase through your affiliates, your company earns a commission.
Some affiliate programs offer a share of the revenue from each person who clicks an affiliate link and sets up a paid account. Book websites, for example, can earn additional money through affiliate links with Amazon. Fashion sites that recommend particular items can receive a percentage of sales whenever the links convert.
The general idea appears simple. However, there are reputational risks to affiliate marketing. Remember to disclose any business relationships or affiliate links, be picky with the items you promote, and only recommend the products your audience may be receptive to. When joining an affiliate program, protect your company’s integrity and never compromise on items that damage your brand.
Another thing to remember about affiliate marketing is that content is key. You need to build engaging content on your company site. Thus, it has to be more than just a landing page or a simple information site. You must produce exciting content, including customer experience blogs, videos, product reviews, or account takeovers.
Customers gravitate towards online reviews as much as they do personal recommendations. A whopping 78% of customers browse online product reviews before deciding on a purchase. Affiliate small business sites can help fill the information gap that leads to a purchase decision.
Provided the content complements your brand well, you can publish reviews and provide information on products you’ve tested and enjoyed.
Subscription models
Subscriptions are another way to generate sustainable income for your business. The subscription model depends on the quality of your content and the amount of engagement you can cultivate, so be sure to expand your company website to accompany necessary content features, like blogs.
A subscription-based business model offers significant advantages. It entails customers paying regular weekly, monthly, or annual fees in exchange for exclusive content, products, and services. This model allows you to harness existing customer relationships, creating a steady income stream for your small business.
Another benefit of a subscription revenue model is the convenience it offers customers. Repeat purchases are easy, especially for products they buy regularly. The model helps customer retention for future sales and reduces the effort of constantly re-engaging them to boost revenue. Subscription programs help you secure your monthly recurring revenue or MRR. The stability that this income stream provides can help keep your business going even through downturns.
There are many ways to integrate subscription models into your company website. One great example is subscription boxes. They are an innovative way to showcase your products and introduce new ones while earning lucratively with the right marketing strategy.
In addition, content-driven subscriptions are an excellent way to monetize IP and expertise. They can be tailored to your goals, industry, and core specialty. Subscription models include online courses, newsletters, and membership offers.
Selling advertising space and sponsored content
A small business website can be utilized as advertising real estate, especially if it’s high traffic. You can offer display advertising through Google AdSense and other networks. Apart from these, you can sell the ad space directly on your site. Direct selling of ad space can be more profitable than using Google AdSense and other networks.
To do this, you need to fulfill basic requirements. When dealing with ad networks, you must often have a minimum of monthly traffic or unique visitors on your site. The rule of thumb is your site must attract approximately 30,000 visitors or more. This number increases the odds of you getting paid per visitor.
However, Google AdSense does not have a minimum traffic requirement. Google AdX or Google Ad Exchange, on the other hand, has a monthly page view requirement of 5 million.
Visitors and site traffic are not the only criteria to qualify for ads. The specific metrics around your visitors, including user behavior and demographics, play a role in targeting. These details influence the price put on bidding, like CPM or cost per thousand impressions.
Content quality is also critical to selling ad space and getting accepted on ad networks. It takes time to build meaningful and engaging content that enriches your user experience. However, the effort is worth it. Content quality plays a big role in drawing and capturing an audience. Moreover, it is valuable in attracting advertisers that match your website’s profile.
As a business owner, you should invest in your site infrastructure and user experience (UX). You need to ensure that your UX is seamless and easy to navigate. Accommodating the wrong kind of ads or allocating too much ad space can damage your UX. It can also impact conversions and bounce rates, thus reducing the value of the ads running on your site.
Sponsored content and brand collaborations are a more subtle way to sell products and promotions. Consider sponsored content as a long-term and in-depth asset. These are blog posts or videos funded by a sponsor, but are created and distributed by a partner site. As a partner website, you ensure that the target audience views and interacts with the specific content produced.
This type of content is highly valuable. Businesses sponsoring content from a trusted partner site or publisher see a 50% brand lift versus those that make their own content. Thus, sponsored content could prove to be an important revenue stream for your small business if you are willing to put time and effort into cultivating an effective content marketing program.
Consulting and licensing expertise
Small business owners can capitalize on their industry knowledge, which is often underestimated and underutilized. Consulting is one way to make money from this in-depth knowledge through your website. It’s a low-hanging fruit.
Business owners can harness their expert knowledge by creating tutorials for specific audiences. They can also license their expertise by providing courses and certifications. Such courses can generate a steady income stream, helping you earn money from another creative revenue source.
Remember to choose the right platform to integrate and offer such courses. Examples of popular contenders include Udemy, Teachable, Thinkific, LearnDash, Kajabi, and Podia.
Online events, virtual workshops, and seminars
You can use your company website to develop your business network, both online and offline. You can also use it to promote events related to your business. Events are relatively easy to organize online and are another way to make money off a website.
A company website can also create virtual workshops and seminars that provide industry information and in-depth training in your expertise.
Moreover, you can integrate promotional experiences, increasing your audience’s knowledge of your product.
Instead of creating new functionalities on your company website, you can use specialized event platforms like Eventbrite and Zoom. These platforms provide the online infrastructure with user-friendly features for your event set-up. Your customer database can now double as a guest list for your virtual or physical events.
If you are the type who would rather package information and sell it as a course, you must consider developing one related to your business. Online courses can help small businesses through brand-building, revenue generation, and data-driven insights. Your course can help establish you as an authority and a leader in your industry, both essential in building your reputation.
When you charge a subscription for your courses, you add a new revenue stream that becomes nearly effortless after you set up and automate the course. Online courses also provide additional insights for your business that inform your sales and marketing decisions.
Innovate To Generate Extra Income Through Your Site
A small business website is more than just a web address to verify your company information. It can be a hub that offers a 360-degree opportunity for knowledge, networking, and brand-aligned experiences.
To maximize your investment and make money off a website, you need to think out of the box. Technology today provides the tools necessary to expand your business offering and enrich your customer experience. Moreover, it creates multiple avenues to monetize your website, often at minimal cost.
While e-commerce is potentially lucrative, not all business models are compatible with its model. As a business owner, you must learn to innovate and think beyond e-commerce for monetization solutions. Take the initiative to explore how to convert a website into a dynamic hub that provides your business with additional security and amplifies financial success.
